Highlights

1
Sister Nivedita's shrine and the hall inside the heritage building have been ransacked.
2
Photographs were torn and donation box looted.
3
Police ruled out any connection with the ongoing Gorkhaland agitation.

Amidst the ongoing turmoil in Darjeeling, unidentified miscreants have vandalised the historic Roy Villa where Swami Vivekananda's disciple sister Nivedita breathed her last. According to the Ramkrishna Mission Nivedita Educational and Cultural Centre, sister Nivedita's shrine and the hall inside the heritage building has been ransacked.

"Devotees who visited the premises on Thursday morning found the main shrine, sister Nivedita's room and the hall where she breathed her last had been ransacked and vandalised. Photographs were torn and the donation box looted," informed Swami Nityasatyananda, who is in-charge of the centre.

Darjeeling Police Superintendent Akhilesh Chaturvedi, however, ruled out any connection to the ongoing Gorkhaland agitation.

"From our initial probe, we feel it's a case of burglary and it has nothing to do with the ongoing agitation," he said.

The 115-year-old heritage structure was recently revamped and restored under the aegis of Ramkrishna Mission after it was taken over by the state government. Sister Nivedita took shelter at the premises with the help of Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose after she first visited Darjeeling in 1903.

The four storey building where sister Nivedita breathed her last in 1911 is now used by the Ramakrishna Mission, which runs the Nivedita Education and Cultural Centre helping children and women from poor families with education and vocational training.

Born as Margaret Elizabeth Noble, Sister Nivedita was a Scots-Irish social worker who went on to become one of Swami Vivekananda's most influential disciples. She was extremely close to scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose and his wife Abala. She would often visit Darjeeling during Durga Puja holidays with the Bose family and it was during one such visit she spent her last days at Roy Villa which the Bose's had rented for their stay. Sister Nivedita was cremated in Darjeeling where her epitaph reads: Here reposes sister Nivedita who gave her all to India.

With inputs from Kayes Ansari

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Darjeeling: Historic Roy Villa where sister Nivedita breathed her last vandalised, looted

According to the Ramkrishna Mission Nivedita Educational and Cultural Centre, sister Nivedita's shrine and the hall inside the heritage building has been ransacked.

Highlights